Professional Pastry Arts : New York

Learn From The Best!

Begin your career path to become a pastry chef, cake designer or rising culinary professional in as little as six months. Under the guidance of Dean Jacques Torres (“Mr. Chocolate”) in New York, our hands-on training helps you to realize your pastry dreams.

Listen to what Dean Jacques Torres and Ron Ben-Israel have to say.

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THE ICC ADVANTAGE:

Be on your way to becoming a pastry chef, cake designer, baker, chocolatier, sugar artist or other rising pastry professional in as little as six months. Our Total Immersion teaching method, comprised of 600 hands-on, instructional hours, provides the training you need to realize your pastry dreams. See details in the Course Details below.

Under the watchful eyes of the accomplished chef-instructors at The ICC’s New York campus, you’ll learn the techniques and knowledge to create a very wide range of pastries and desserts in a small class setting. Comprehensive training that is intense, thorough, and fast is a hallmark of The International Culinary Center, and our signature Total ImmersionSM training method creates a dynamic learning environment, in which you can develop the comprehensive skillset you need for a successful career in the pastry arts in just six months of full-time study (or nine in the evening).

Learn in a hands-on, fast-paced environment

Professional Pastry Arts combines both hands-on instruction and theory into one comprehensive program. Each class is designed to highlight vocabulary, kitchen organization and equipment using ICC’s original recipes that feature fundamental techniques and skills used by professionals. Before you make anything for the first time, your chef-instructors will demonstrate the proper execution method, and they’re always on hand to encourage and help you as you practice on your own.

The ICC’s curriculum covers a tremendous amount of material in a short period of time, and your chef-instructors will push you to work efficiently and quickly from day one. At the conclusion of the program, you’ll be prepared to meet the demands of working in a professional kitchen, with the proper techniques, work habits, and attitude necessary to succeed in the real world.

Each level of the Professional Pastry Arts curriculum has been thoughtfully constructed to teach you the essentials of each element of pastry, as well as to give you practical techniques that you will continue to build upon as you advance through the program.

Your program covers:

250+ professional techniques, from fundamentals to complex

16 days of intense chocolate work, including individual showpieces

12 days of sugar-focused décor including sugar paste flowers

Professional-quality cake baking and decorating

“Culinary math”– food costing, baker’s percentage, portion yields

Specialty subjects: coffee, tea, wine and gluten-free baking

Modern techniques: using sous-vide and hydrocolloids

UNPARALLELLED ALUMNI NETWORK & CAREER SERVICES
Graduate fully prepared to begin a new career

The day you receive your Grand Diplôme is just the beginning. With the expertise you’ve gained—and the backing of The ICC’s reputation and expanding alumni network—you’ll have access to an exciting world of new opportunities in the pastry, cake & culinary industry.

World-Class Internships.

Our dedicated Career Services team helps you land optional internships at landmark institutions such as:

At the heart of The ICC are the industry icons who are our esteemed deans & faculty including Jacques Torres who is our Dean of Pastry Arts and owner of Jacques Torres Chocolate and Ron Ben-Israel, world-famous cake designer, master chef and creator of our cake program . Lead by Chef Jansen Chan, our team of top-tier chef instructors will guide you every step of the way from novice to professional.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN 6-9 MONTHS

Your introduction to the professional kitchen is the basic doughs that comprise the “families” of cookie types.

BUILDING BLOCKS YOU’LL LEARN

Dropped, Piped, Rolled, Molded and Bar Cookies

Flooding Technique

THE ITEMS YOU WILL MAKE INCLUDE:

Diamants

Vanilla Crescents

Checkerboard Sablée

Royal Icing

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Measuring and Precision: The successful execution of any pastry recipe requires knowing how to properly scale ingredients and portions.

Tools of the Trade: How to handle the tools commonly used by pastry chefs.

Food Safety: General rules of hygiene as well as comprehensive food handling and safety issues for a kitchen environment. You’ll also gain the valuable National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe® Food Protection Manager Certification.

Learn the basics of pastry components by mastering classic tart and pie doughs, along with a variety of sweet and savory fillings. These will serve as the building blocks of future, more complex pastries. Focus techniques include knife skills, dough rolling and piping.

BUILDING BLOCKS YOU’LL LEARN

Pâte Brisée

Pâte Sucrée

Pâte Sablée

Fruit Compotes

Ganache

Custards

Almond Cream

THE ITEMS YOU WILL MAKE INCLUDE:

Tarte aux Pommes

Galette Flamande

Tarte au Ganache Chocolat

Caramel Apple Streusel Pie

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Mise en Place: Learn the best way to proceed in a kitchen—by having all processes arranged and complete.

The Art of the Perfect Crust: Make various crusts with classic pastry doughs—pâte brisée (and its American counterpart, pie dough), pâte sucrée and pâte sablée—noting their differences by mixing methods and ratios of flour, butter, sugar and liquid.

Fillings to Create More Complex Desserts: Various fillings—almond cream, pastry cream, ganache, meringue, fruit compotes—are essential components in making not just tarts, but a full range of desserts, such as éclairs, Danishes, almond croissants, cakes and plated desserts.

Pâte à choux or choux paste, is a unique dough used to make such pastries as éclairs, cream puffs and gougères. Practicing the techniques of mixing, piping and baking this dough will further sharpen your skills and give you yet another component for making more complex, dramatic desserts.

THINGS YOU’LL LEARN

Pâte à choux

Caramel as Decoration

Glazing with Pâte à Glacer and Icing Fondant

THE ITEMS YOU MAKE WILL INCLUDE:

Coffee, Chocolate and Vanilla Éclairs

Croquembouche

Gâteau Saint-Honoré

Gougères

Paris-Brest

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Dough basic: Understand the chemistry behind the method for preparing this cooked dough, as well as the correct timing and technique for consistent results.

Crème Pâstisserie: Learn additional variations of classic pastry cream as well as how to flavor and combine with other components, such as meringue and praline paste.

Piping: Learn the basics of piping as you make Paris-Brest, profiteroles and other shaped pastries. This is groundwork for the more delicate, intricate piping necessary that comes later in the program

Construction: Begin with your first edible showpiece, a classic French croquembouche, a pyramid of profiteroles fastened with caramel.

This flaky, multi-layered pastry has been inspiring French bakers for centuries. At once crunchy, tender and light, its buttery goodness is hard to resist. Master the various techniques to perform turns and folds that are vital steps to create a laminated dough.

THE ITEMS YOU’LL MAKE INCLUDE:

Palmiers

Cheese Straws

Conversations

Tarte Tatin

Mille-feuilles

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Three Classic Methods: Explore the classic, inverse and quick methods of creating puff pastry and determine which to use for each application.

Shaping and Finishing: Twisting cheese straws into shape, rolling and cutting palmiers, glazing and decorating a napoleon with a two-toned marbleized glaze are examples of the techniques you’ll learn.

The complexities of cake are divided into three units in the program. Begin by learning basic mixing methods to yield different cake styles, as well as classic buttercreams to be used as fillings and frostings. As you learn more types of cakes and fillings, more ambitious cakes can be achieved. An impressive project for aspiring pastry students is the 3-tiered wedding cake, part of the last cake unit. Cake decoration naturally accompanies each recipe, providing opportunities for glazing, frosting and piping.

Egg whites: Beaten egg whites are essential to create a wide variety of cakes, fillings, frostings and desserts. Learn and practice with different meringues in several applications.

Frostings and Finishes: Produce several types of finishes and even more variations on the fillings. You will work with a variety of confections, from marzipan to fondant—both as a finishing encasement for a layered cake and as a decorating tool.

Decorating techniques: Stenciling, piping, sugar paste flowers, chocolate curls and marzipan fruits and flowers are just a few of the decorations you’ll execute.

ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES

THE ITEMS YOU’LL MAKE INCLUDE:

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Leavening Methods: Explore the world of organic leavening and how it relates to mechanical and chemical leavening, gaining a wider understanding of production complexities that come with each.

Yeast and Pre-ferment Formulas: Whether using a straight-dough method or one of the pre-ferment methods (sponge, polish or autolyse), you will exercise your hand at mixing, shaping and baking breads from around the globe.

Quick Breads: Explore how various mixing methods can be used to create quick breads, using chemical leavening.

Refine many of the techniques taught earlier in the program to create these bite-size, beautiful presentations. Learn the various styles of petits fours and practice the techniques of portioning and decorating for consistent products.

THE ITEMS YOU’LL MAKE INCLUDE:

Opéra

Macarons

Financiers

Madeleines

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Types of Petits Fours: You will make Sec (dry), Frais (fresh) and Moulleux (soft) styles of petits fours, and determine the strengths of each.

Hand Skills: Because petit fours are small in scale and served in groups, consistent execution is very exacting. Crafting diminutive versions of familiar pastries will give you practice in hand skills and refine your ability to turn out identical products in large quantities.

Visual Skills: An essential part of a pastry chef’s talent lies in design–knowing how to plate a dessert in a visually appealing manner. This unit will be your first exposure to plating, with several opportunities to practice arranging an assortment of the petit fours, taking into account shape, size and color.

Taste: As you practice composing service platters for your petit fours, you will be encouraged to think about flavor. You’ll evaluate how the flavors of individual petit fours pair with one another and build upon these findings when you eventually create your own.

This deep-dive into chocolate will graduate in complexity and expose you to the challenges of working with chocolate and how to handle them like a pro. Chef-instructors will start you off with a general lesson on chocolate production and selection. You will move on to learning about the structure of chocolate and the tricky science of tempering melted chocolate for dipping candies and bonbons, as well as constructing your own creative chocolate sculptures. And finally, you will practice using chocolate to make cakes and plated desserts.

THE ITEMS YOU’LL MAKE INCLUDE:

Peanut butter nougat

Truffles

Bonbons

Chocolate-Dipped Butter Caramels

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Sensory evaluation and critical thinking: Begin the process of assessing flavor, texture and “mouthfeel” of different chocolates and determining how to use and pair each with other ingredients. You’ll evaluate the varieties of chocolate and decide what chocolate profiles will result in a desired effect.

Tempering: Practice each of the five ways to temper chocolate, beginning with the traditional three methods of tabling, seeding and ice bath and later incorporating the Mycryo® and partial-melting methods.

Decorations: Learn how to make templates to cut shapes out of poured chocolate, mold chocolate, apply patterns to the surface using transfer sheets, techniques (such as wood grain, piping and marbling), add color with cocoa butter, air brush and luster dust. Marry these techniques to design and craft a chocolate box, a candy dish and a themed display piece.

Dipping and piping: Ganache-filled bonbons, soft caramels, cherry cordials…just a few of the confections you will dip and decorate with chocolate. Gain experience with evenly and thinly coating your candies and learn tactics for creating smooth, unblemished surfaces and neatly piped lines.

Working with sugar requires time, patience, a fastidious attention to details and a stylish flair. Sugar—in all its mediums—is perhaps the most essentially artistic skill you will learn in pastry school. Because of its hygroscopic (water-attracting) nature, it can be temperamental and tricky to maintain, but this simple ingredient is used for making many of the embellishments and adornments crafted by pastry chefs. In two units, one basic and one advanced, you will learn how to mold fruit and other shapes out of marzipan, make and work with pastillage and nougatine, form your own sugar paste flowers and pour, pull and blow hot sugar to make exquisite decorations.

SKILLS YOU WILL MASTER:

Sugar Paste Flowers

Marzipan Fruit

Pastillage Showpiece

Poured, Pulled and Blown Sugar

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Color application: In each sugar section, practice applying color to product, using methods as simple as kneading color into sugar paste or pastillage to create base colors, or as complicated as painting intricate patterns on flowers. Learn to evaluate the different effects produced by these techniques and how you want to employ them in your own creations.

Hand-skills and artistry: Cutting, pouring, molding and shaping are just some of the opportunities you will have to prove your hand skills and sharpen your eye for design. With your classmates, you will construct projects, such as an individual showpiece entirely from sugar, or the cake stand and favor boxes you will cut out and shape from pastillage.

An individual dessert synthesizes many pastry techniques into one composition. A pastry chef must draw from all his or her knowledge—doughs, fillings, chocolate or sugar work—to present a complete, single-portion creation. You will learn this over two levels, one basic and one advanced. Eventually, you’ll plan and execute an original menu for an outside audience with your classmates, giving you a view of restaurant kitchen organization and testing your ability to work effectively as a team in with time restrictions.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Sous-Vide Technique

Hydrocolloids

Ice Creams

Fried Batters

THE ITEMS YOU’LL MAKE INCLUDE

Crêpes Suzette

Soufflés

Tropical Fruit Soups

Contemporary Tiramisu

Deconstructed Black Forest Dessert

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Classic Desserts: Well-known desserts such as crème brulee, cheesecake and beignets are the building blocks of more challenging creations. You will execute these favorites, which are simple in idea, but not so simple in versatility and execution.

Conceptualization: Creating a dynamic dessert requires understanding how to balance flavors, textures, temperatures and aesthetics. Learn how to incorporate modern techniques and ingredients into the classic recipes you have already learned. These will be constructed—and deconstructed—to reveal why they are successful.

Menus and Seasonality: Explore the regional seasons of fruits and vegetables to prove the significance of using products at their peak. Learn how seasonality affects both a kitchen’s bottom line and its flavor profiles, crucial as you develop and present a dessert menu and concept.

Working as a Team: Because of their complexity, plated desserts are well-suited to fine-tuning your kitchen command, communication and real-world timing. You’ll need to know when to ask for help and when to give it, how to make a plan and how to alter it on the fly, in order to reach the common goal.

Restaurant Modules: To be a success in the industry, you must have an understanding of important secondary subjects such as gluten-free and vegan desserts, food costing, tea, coffee, wine and cheese.

Two major exams, the midterm and final, measure your comprehensive knowledge and execution.

EXAMINATION SUMMARY:

Midterm: This unit provides three separate exams: a written exam; a production evaluation, which measures your ability to multi-task several recipes; and a practical exam, where you will be evaluated on the completion of a finished product.

Final: The final comprises both a written and practical final exam and is the culmination of everything you’ve learned in the 600-hour program. All of your pastry skills will be utilized as you mix, bake, proof and dip the items from categories assigned to you for evaluation, plus design and execute the display stand from sugar, chocolate, nougatine and/or pastillage. Your chef-instructors will evaluate your work habits and executions. Guest pastry chefs will critique the quality of your final products based on taste, texture and design, providing feedback that will serve you well beyond graduation as you embark upon your career.

HEAR WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY

At ICC, we’ve helped thousands of students start their culinary, pastry and wine careers. Hear from a few of our graduates about why they chose ICC and what they thought of the experience.

“The training I had here at the school, and the training that I also got working in the field, prepped me very very well”
– Michael Zebrowski

“Once you tell somebody that you graduated from the International Culinary Center, your world opens up”
– Claudia Smith

“I wanted to be the best that I could be. I took my class with Ron Ben Israel, and I was able to take my business to the next level”
– Jennifer Carey

The International Culinary Center® is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). The full-time day program is open to enrollment by M-1 nonimmigrant students, in accordance with US Department of Education requirements. The International Culinary Center® discloses certain educational, labor, and financial statistics related to this program. View disclosure for daytime and evening schedules.